Punches to the downed Davis ended the fight at the 4:12 mark of the first round and capped off a night of fights at Bellator 71.

The event took place at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort in Chester, W.V. Main card fights aired live on MTV2 while preliminary-card fights streamed on Spike.com.

Wiuff, who’s one of the most experienced competitors to walk into the Bellator cage, threw just about one good punch before bullying Davis to the cage.

There, the fight remained until boos filled the arena.

Davis tried to escape the position once, but Wiuff was all over him before he could create space and work any semblance of a striking game. Although his tactics didn’t please, it was Wiuff who connected with the first meaningful punch, a short right hand that dropped Davis and allowed him to pound away from the Bellator newcomer’s back.

A flurry of shots, and Davis was out, prompting the referee to intervene. Wiuff afterward paced the cage with a snarl.

“I’m ready to go – I want that belt,” Wiuff said. “I want to be up on that banner. Christian (M’Pumbu) – I’m coming for that belt.

Wiuff (66-14 MMA, 3-0 BFC), who improves his current win streak to five, already holds the distinction of beating champ M’Pumbu in a non-title bout (and prompting calls to eliminate such fights for champs). Davis (10-4 MMA, 0-2 BFC), who lost to M’Pumbu in his most recent outing, could be on the way out of Bellator.

Vegh tames wild Galesic in one minute

Gone in 60 seconds – that was the meeting of Zelg Galesic and Attila Vegh.

A frenzied Galesic swarmed early with punches, prompting the submission specialist Vegh to go for the takedown. Unfortunately, he was quickly reversed and took a knee to the head as he righted himself.

Galesic chased him across the cage with a flurry of punches and kicks, but was stopped in his tracks by a left hook that dropped him to his knees. Seizing opportunity, Vegh hopped on his back and got the tapout at the one-minute mark of the first frame.

“It was kind of hard to start out fresh because Zelg just came out crazy,” Vegh said through a translator. “It was hard for me to get my rhythm, but once [Zelg] got caught, it woke me up, and I finished the job.”

Vegh (26-4 MMA, 2-0 BFC) now boasts back-to-back wins in Bellator. After a 34-second KO of former WEC champ Doug Marshall, Galesic (11-7 MMA, 0-2 BFC) is back on the road to redemption.

Emanuel Newton outgrapples Roy Boughton for submission win

A frenzied, back-and-forth session of roughhouse grappling left Emanuel Newton exhausted by the second round.

Thankfully for him, Roy Boughton could not escape his rear-naked choke early in the second frame of their meeting. Newton earned the tapout at the 49-second mark of the round.

The two traded position several times from the outset of the bout, but it was Newton who was the more physical of grapplers. He slammed Boughton to the mat after one particularly spirited exchange and powered him back to the ground after defending a takedown.

Boughton worked for submissions, but Newton’s posture made it impossible for him to get anywhere.

The two traded kicks at the start of the frame, but it was Newton that did damage when Boughton lunged forward and caught a knee to the head. Immediately, Newton locked in the arm triangle and then secured his legs. Boughton had no choice to tap.

A thankful Newton (18-6 MMA, 1-0 BFC), who improves his current streak to six, said he would do better when he had more than three weeks to prepare. Boughton (8-3 MMA, 0-1 BFC) goes back to the drawing board after seeing his three-fight streak is snapped.

Tim Carpenter stays calm to cinch sub for semifinal berth

Short-notice tournament replacement Tim Carpenter is the first semifinalist of the Bellator Summer Series light-heavyweight tournament.

After tourney participant Rich Hale was not cleared to compete, Carpenter, a season-four semifinalist, stepped in to the slot.

After spending much of the second frame on the wrong end of Beau Tribolet’s ground and pound, Carpenter locked in an armbar for a tapout at the 4:51 of the round.

“I didn’t even expect to be here today,” he said afterward. “I was a last-minute addition, so that’s all that’s all that’s on my mind right now. I’m ready to go.”

Carpenter fared well in the first frame of the fight, mostly because Tribolet didn’t do much to stop him. Tribolet spent the majority of the round evading, but not offering much in the way of counters or offense. Meanwhile, Carpenter pursued and put together several combinations to take the round.

Tribolet woke up in the second and got busy with striking combinations, several of which scored. When Carpenter missed a guillotine attempt, he took top position and pounded away with punches. The round appeared to be in the bag, but a momentary lapse in defense allowed Carpenter (9-1 MMA, 3-1 BFC) to use the cage to angle his hips and cinch the armbar.

It wasn’t the most athletically impressive endeavor, but Brett Rogers’ early work on former training partner Kevin Asplud paid dividends that won the fight.

Asplund’s swollen left eye prompted the cageside doctor to call off the bout between the second and third rounds.

“I wasn’t expecting it to look like this, but it is what it is,” Rogers said afterward. “He’s got a concrete head. I wasn’t lying about that, right?”

Meanwhile, a carefree Asplud paraded his swollen eye around the cage, beaten on paper but not in spirit.

After initial skirmishes, Rogers landed big with a right hand when the two collided and then tossed Asplund to the mat. Asplund kept his former training partner honest with a kimura, which slowed the action down, but Rogers managed to land a big knee before the two returned to their feet.

There, it was Rogers that was just a bit more accurate of punchers, countering Asplund’s swinging hooks with more compact shots. He bowled over Asplund with a big uppercut and nearly sealed the deal with follow-up shots from up top, but ran out of time.

Asplund scored in the second with a left, but Rogers charged back and landed a knee to the chin from the clinch. That prompted Asplund to take the fight down, but the bigger Rogers got up and landed a takedown of his own. Asplund again countered with a kimura but took a flurry of punches to end the second.

Asplund’s cornermen were still giving him instruction when the fight was waved off.

Rogers (11-4 MMA, 1-0 BFC) earns his first win following a 1-4 stretch while Asplund (15-2, 0-1 BFC) suffers his first loss since his first pro fight in 2002.

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